Alien Legends: A Selection from the Repository of Imagination (YA fantasy compendium)

To be published shortly in ePUB through Barnes & Noble, Sony Readerstore and iTunes, Smashwords.

“Welcome to the Repository of Imagination, young sir. Do you have a tale you wish to hear?”

From astonishing worlds of fantasy, aliens, and magic, the Repository of Imagination has been collecting tales since the dawn of time. Now, for the first time, selected story spheres from the Repository have been translated into human languages. Open your mind to the splendor of other worlds, to fantastic creatures so alike you humans in some ways, yet in other ways so different. Learn the cautionary tales of those whose lives played out eons before your own.

Alien Legends: A Selection from the Repository of Imagination collects 32 separate stories suitable for young humans aged 11-15 years, and for older readers whose sense of wonder is still functional. Translated from the original alien sources by Gill Shutt.

What you will find inside

If you enjoy reading anything in this list, then Alien Legends is for you, as all of these are featured in its stories: giant eagles, aliens, gods, space whales, falling in love, more aliens, short stories, the birth of worlds, poems, betrayal, questing knights, novellas, spaceships, dark underground caverns, novellas, science fiction, rites and rituals, and deadly fungus that will eat you as you sleep.

The Repository of Imagination is REAL! And YOU can get involved

“I shall need a tale from you, my friend…”

We hope the tales in this compendium inspire your own imagination to soar. At the back of the book are details of our ‘A Tale for a Tale’ program that explain how you can create and share your own story sphere. The Repository of Imagination is not something we’ve made up. It is real, and you can get involved.

Here’s an extract from the beginning of the book…

I had just descended a small flight of steps to a street I did not recognise when my eye was caught by the window opposite. It appeared to be full of glass balls, each no bigger than an apple. They hung on display with no visible means of suspension, which piqued my interest.

Above the window, in large lettering, it proclaimed to be ‘The Repository of Imagination’, and underneath in smaller script ‘A Tale for a Tale’. I looked closely at the globes and each one held a different scene: a strange underwater monster swimming the ocean’s depth; a rolling grassland with dog-like animals apparently running from a shadow cast on the ground behind them; all manner of things were there, some so incomprehensible I could make neither head nor tail of what I was looking at.

Out of interest I entered the shop through the door set slightly back from the street. A bell rang above my head.

“Welcome, welcome.” A small man appeared from the dark recesses at the back. He wore a gray robe as though he were a monk. His hair was likewise gray and balding but this lack was more than made up for by his long, flowing beard that nearly hung to his waist. He bowed to me in the manner of a man from the northern climes and offered me a seat. “Welcome to the Repository of Imagination, young sir. Do you have a tale you wish to hear?”

At this he waved his arm at the window display and nodded to me as if to indicate I should pick one of the globes which hung there.

“What is this place?” I asked, a little confused, for I had thought it to be a shop but there was no counter, just some comfortable chairs arranged around a low table on which sat a tray with glasses, a carafe of wine and a plate of cheeses.

“This is a gathering post for The Repository. We collect tales from around the Universe and store them for posterity. If you have a tale to tell I can record it here.” He indicated a small machine which I hadn’t noticed until then. “In payment for your tale I can, in return, tell you one of these I have here.” Again he waved to the window where my eye was suddenly caught by a globe to my right. It was a scene of trees, huge and green such as I had never seen before. On closer inspection I thought I could make out the faces of creatures looking back at me. They were humanoid and yet not men but I could see intelligence in their gaze. I was intrigued and the little man smiled at my obvious interest.